The folks at CarWow are taking two formidable machines to the drag strip. BMW’s top M3 model – the CS – is being pitted against the all-wheel drive four-door Audi RS4 Avant. According to BMW, the entire M3 CS run is limited t0 1200 with more than 500 coming to this year at a base price of $97,400.
The M engineers gave the M3 CS a similar sort of treatment as they gave the M4 CS, just not to the same extreme, yet, the full package looks just as enticing. The BMW M3 CS also receives a power boost, up 28 hp from the standard M3 to make 453 hp. It also gets a bump in torque, up 37 lb-ft to total 443 lb-ft.
The M3 CS can get from 0-60 mph in 3.7 seconds, which sounds about exactly right, considering the Comp Pack can do it in around 3.8-3.9 seconds and the CS is a bit lighter and more powerful.
The last generation of RS4 was the B8 generation and that came out back when the E92 M3 was still screaming through dealerships. So it wasn’t really modern enough to keep with its newer competitors. Now, though, the four-ringed brand is back to take on its newer competition and the 2018 Audi RS4 Avant has just made its debut at the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show.
Under the hood lies a 2.9 liter twin-turbocharged V6 engine, the same one you get in an Audi RS5 and Porsche Panamera. In RS4-guise, it makes 450 hp and 442 lb-ft of torque, which are both more than the M3 Competition Package’s numbers. Power is sent through an eight-speed automatic to all four wheels, with the option of a rear sport limited-slip differential.
According to Audi, it can get from 0-60 mph in about 4.1 seconds.
But considering one it’s a rear-wheel drive platform – the M3 CS – while the other is an all-wheel drive grip machine, the race might be closer than expected. The folks at Carwow are doing a series of runs, including a rolling start and a Launch Control.
Let’s have a look.
